Biological fluids such as blood stored in bags are typically heated before infusion into a patient. When heated, air bubbles form in the blood which need to be eliminated before infusion in order to prevent serious injury or death to the patient. Additionally, blood clots within the blood must be filtered from the blood before infusion.
Current methods of heating, filtering and eliminating air from biological fluids before infusion into a patient are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,759,749 and 4,900,308 which are issued to Verkaart. The Verkaart patents disclose an apparatus for heating, filtering and eliminating air from blood in which a heat exchanger for heating the blood is connected in series to a filter/air eliminator by a length of tubing. The filter/air eliminator receives heated blood from the heat exchanger near the top of the filter/air eliminator. Air bubbles contained within the heated blood are vented to the atmosphere through vent holes located at the top of the filter/air eliminator. The blood then travels downward through a filter element located at the bottom of the filter/air eliminator to filter blood clots from the blood.